In such applications for special environments, a plate glass is presently fixed by adhesive or by being pressed between two mechanical holding parts that form frames.
The major drawback encountered in such methods of assembly is that it is not possible to control the resonant frequencies of vibrations in the plate glass. Rather, the vibration of the plate glass is directly influenced by the resonant frequencies of the materials used in the assembly, and more particularly the materials of the support elements and the fixing means which are both rigid.
There is thus a danger that the frequencies of the plate glass may correspond to the frequencies of some other mechanical component of the fixing assembly which can give rise to coupling and to runaway vibration thereof. This can lead to the breaking of the plate glass.
Naturally, in making the invention, steps were initially taken to interpose a flexible gasket in the rabbet of the rigid frame-forming support elements, i.e. between the rabbet and the outer margin of the plate glass, and to do so on both sides.
Vibration tests show that although flexible gaskets perform well in damping vibration and in absorbing differential expansion between the glass and its support, they are often inadequate for governing the frequencies of vibrations that take place in the plate glass since it is not possible to control the clamping means acting on the gaskets. As a result the gaskets randomly compressed to a greater or lesser extent.
In order to solve this second problem, the invention proposes not only to decouple the resonant frequencies of the plate glass from those of the other mechanical parts, but also to appropriately select the frequencies of the plate glass by controlling the clamping thereof. Such clamping is controlled without special precautions having to be taken by the assembly operator. The present invention also protects the plate glass from breakage in the event that too much torque is applied to the clamping means during assembly.